I am curious about what some of you do as far as post processing your images. Do you shoot RAW and then process? What steps do you take?

I shoot almost exclusively RAW. I am still somewhat insecure, so I may also use the auto settings if I feel I want to be sure to have something decent of an image. I do not have my camera set to do both RAW and jpeg.

I upload photos to Aperture where i do my basic post processing--slight adjustments with sharpen. contrast, saturation; sometimes vibrancy, exposure and brightness, temp. and hue. I use my 25 inch monitor to do the processing. If there are further steps I want to take, I usually export and use PhotoShop.

For the most part, I dont do much post processing. I shoot in raw (when I'm not shooting film) and do slight tweaks to the exposure and contrast and occasional cropping (plus painting out errant phone lines or ugly artifacts once in a while), but not much past that. But then I'm of the school that one should get it right in the first place, get it right in the camera.

I shoot RAW+JPG. Nice to have that JPG shot to quickly run through my images on the computer. Smaller file size means I can really zip through them.

Post processing all depends on the pictures and what I'm going for. If it's just snapshots at say a family gathering then I'll do adjustments as needed for exposure. A lot depends on where I plan on printing the pictures.

If the shots are more artistic then I'd have a vision in mind and take it from there. Could be I end up doing nothing to the images. Other times it may require me removing/adding things to the shot.

For the tintypes I'll occasionally polish the bright spots, this gives a nice metallic luster. I'll also occasionally add some rose colour to the cheeks and/or gold paint dots on uniform buttons. (all this is before I varnish the plate) For Daguerreotypes if I'm quite confidant that I got everything else right I'll coat with gold chloride. This darkens the blacks a bit and helps with image permanence.

I have a P&S camera that doesn't do RAW. I always start in Picasa 3 and use it as an organizer. It also makes simple adjustments like cropping or straightening so easy. I love SOOC best and make no adjustments if the original photo "speaks" to me . I take a lot of photos and delete a lot of photos -- I use noise reducing software sometimes if I want a really smooth silky look. For lighting and exposure adjustments and special treatments I use photoshop elements 5 -- I love playing around with black and white and monochrome treatments mainly as well as some layering for ttv, aging and texture effects. I also love poladroid.

I shoot everything RAW – though now I may shoot RAW+JPG like you Ankou. I get tired of Lightroom churning away to preview my images. Thanks for the tip!

Processing honestly depends on the type of photo. I think I've mentioned previously that I'm not one for the "over processed look" - especially with sunrises and sunsets. There's something about photos of skies that look like the aftermath of a nuclear explosion that really bothers me. No offense to anyone who likes that. Its just one person's opinion. Anywhoo! Like I said, I do my best to refrain from spending lots of time in Lightroom with my images. Frankly, I don't have the time and I'm trying to be more of a purest with my photography.

That being said, I've been known to photoshop the heck out of some images — purposely — and these I consider illustrations — not photos. You may have seen the spooky pumpkin with it's ghostly neon green wisp going through it's eye? (below) These types of artworks are more for my own enjoyment. I love creating something like this with all kinds of brushes, textures, filters and multiple images. Its fun to make it as realistic as possible yet simultaneously illustrative. Just my artsy fun!

I make my bw images by selecting one (or various parts) of the RGB channels to obtain the effect I'm after. The red channel punches clouds in the sky more, blue channel darkens the overall image and green is usually the comfortable medium for the entire image. My final composite is then converted to grayscale, turned into a duotone, tritone or quadtone for the tone/tints desired and then finally reverted back to RGB for proper online viewing and prints. To me these images are automatically more illustrative because of this multi-step processing I go through. If I were to use straight bw film then I'd consider them actual photos. BTW where do you take your bw negatives to make ACTUAL bw prints? Mine always looked greenish when ordering prints locally because the store used the same machine they use for their color prints. Is this still done? It's why I stopped shooting bw film. Of course this was several years ago...

A few Lightroom questions:What do the "Sharpen - Landscape" and "Sharpen - Portraits" presets do? Am I blind? I never see any difference using these.When Lightroom backs up my library do I really need to keep ALL the previous library folders? Aren't all my images in the most recent backup folder? Seems like wasted disc space to me.

I start editing in Adobe Camera RAW. In ACR, I fix the white balance, if needed, and adjust the contrast and exposure. I rarely't use the auto settings there. I play until I get it the way I want it. I watch the histogram closely. Depending on the type of photo (how artistic, who it's meant for, etc.) I may skip through some presets that change the tone and saturation, and if there's one I like, I may use it, often tweaking it to my satisfaction.

Then I open each photo in photoshop. I always try color correcting using the black, white, & gray droppers in curves (I use a technique I read about in Scott Kelby's book for finding the gray point). Usually this helps. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I warm it up or cool it down myself, using curves. I usually add a little contrast using an s curve and often lighten in curves as well. Sometimes I do this with masking. I often do a "defog." At this point, I consider myself done with the basics, and if I don't want to add a little something to it, I sharpen (sometimes with masking so only part of it is sharpened) and am done.

If I have a vision for the photo, I play around with various actions and sometimes textures and usually tweak them until they don't look like themselves anymore (the actions and textures, not the photos).

I almost never clone things out of backgrounds. I try to get the photo with an acceptable background to begin with, and I take so many photos that if there's a distracting background in one, I just put that aside and go to another, even if it's a different time and place. I do sometimes "heal" temporary skin problems like pimples, and I do make an effort not to sharpen skin or do anything that would bring attention to blemishes or other permanent skin problems.

I am fairly new to photography, and have never done anything with any sort of editing. I have photoshop, but know next to nothing about it. Does anyone know of any good sites, or books, for photo editing beginners?

My images are all taken in RAW when using the Canon EOS 500D. Occasionally I use the Canon S3 1S and recently, the Canon IXUS 100 IS which don't capture in RAW. For processing I use ACDSee PRO3. It has no difficulties opening and displaying the RAW images quite quickly. More recently, I have been attempting to capture images so I can use them SOOC - straight out of the camera. This is kind of like using film where you tend to take care with shots because they cost money :-). Most of my images from the past have had some form of post-processing done, usually to correct exposure, detail, brightness and/or darkness. I also have Corel's PaintShop PRO Photo X2 and PhotoImpact X3 but rarely use either of those, mainly because ACDSee does everything so efficiently. I import images from my cameras direct into ACDSee. Before I do any processing, I name the images by batches, depending on what I have taken. ACDSee is set to add the date and time to the images as they are imported, and then I just add the title for each batch. By renaming before I delete any "not wanted" shots, it keeps the camera's image number in sequence. Description and notes are also added by batch processing in ACDSee with notes specific to any one image being added separately to the image. Once that is done, then I start examining the images to see what needs to be done. Once that process is completed, I batch convert the RAW files into JPG and save them in a specific folder, depending on the subject. For example, my moon shots are added to a "Night Sky" folder. Each day's processing is placed in a separate folder with the date and title, such as "2010-06-08 Waning Moon". I tag all my images in ACDSee as they are processed, and these tags are transferred to Flickr when I upload, saving time. It pays to have a system in place that helps your work-flow. I couldn't imagine working without one that's for sure.

I shoot in RAW and edit in Adobe Camera Raw. I then open in Photoshop. Sometimes I just save the file as a jpg but sometimes I do other creative stuff with the photo - depends on what I see in the photo.

I shoot in RAW and use ufraw for processing. Mostly I'm just doing white balance and exposure adjustments and simulating filters for B&W. I try not to do too much processing once the picture is in jpg, because there isn't enough bit depth.

I don't limit my processing. I adjust contrast, heal imperfections, mess with my exposure, simulate film grain, vignette, cross process, whatever else I think will look good or present a certain mood. If a yellow color cast will look happy then hell yeah I'll do it.

However, I limit myself so that no one who looks at my pictures will think "That's some neat photoshopping." It should always look like a photo, and in the end I should always still have just a photo. If people can tell you worked on it then you worked on it too much is my opinion. (obvious exceptions for things like black and white..)

For breaking news, I shoot in JPG. Because of it's smaller file size, I can shoot much faster since downloads on the CF card are quicker. Also I don't have little or no time to post process since the editors and agencies want it as fast as possible. At most some exposure adjustment and it's get uploaded.

For fashion and portraits, I shoot RAW. But more importantly, I use a X-Rite Color Checker to get correct white balance and skin tone.

First, in a layer, I correct the white balance and color.

Second, I scrutinize the entire image for any flaws: lighting errors, dust, errant hair, wrinkles on the clothes, skin imperfections, anything that detracts.

Third, I create another layer, and using the smallest size brush possible start healing out the flaws.

Fourth, with yet another layer I use Dodge and Burn to correct any flaws created by the lighting.

I might liquify in a fifth layer, but I try not too since it destroys pixels.

Finally, I will run the image through Alien Skin Exposure, if I want an special effect or want to simulate film.

I don't use blur, sharpen, skin softener or actions with fashion and portraits because texture is very important.